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@liztai@hachyderm.io I don't know that much about the Chinese diaspora (except that it exists and roughly where it's located) but I find it interesting how the feeling of being Chinese is still so strong.

I guess I can't help comparing with Europe where usually you're "from" where you were born after two generations or so.

I have a Spanish or Catalan last name (I'm not even sure), a Flemish grandma and I'm also partly German (from the 19th Century), but I don't feel that any of those are part of my culture or identity. I'm a SouthWestern French because this is where I grew up, basically, and despite only one of my four grandparents being from there.

And that's pretty much the same for all Europeans I know (after two or three generations, your "roots" become irrelevant)

That's why I always facepalm when White Americans tell me that they're French or Italian or whatever because they know of one ancestor that's from there ("No, sorry, you're American.")

But it is different with the Chinese diaspora because, as you mentioned, you all still have a lot of customs and cultural practices coming from China.

When I lived in Paris, I knew one guy who was French from Vietnam but from the Chinese diaspora if that makes sense. When you asked him about his cultural identity, he just shrugged.

My parents' neighbor (basically my third grandma, I was closer to her than to one real grandma) was from Vietnam too, and she had one Chinese grandparent. When you asked her about her identity, she said French citizen of Vietnamese culture. She never felt Chinese.